The Beginning of Wood Badge

Wood Badge and Gilwell Park

Baden-Powell took the first steps in the training of Scouters by organizing a
series of lectures for Scouters in 1911. He made great strides by devising and
instituting Wood Badge training in 1919. Wood Badge recipients now number more
than 100,000 throughout the world.

The object of the Wood Badge course is to demonstrate as practically as
possible the aims and methods of Scouting. Upon successful completion of the
course, the participant receives a parchment certificate and the Wood Badge—two
wooden beads worn on a leather thong around the neck. These beads replicate the
beads found by Baden-Powell during a campaign in Africa in 1888. They belonged
to Dinizulu, an African chieftain. In searching for a suitable recognition for
those who completed the first course in 1919, Baden-Powell remembered the beads
and decided to present a bead to each participant. At that time, the course was
called "Wood Badge."

A Permanent Home

In 1919, W. F. de Bois Maclaren, a district commissioner in Scotland,
purchased Gilwell Park and presented it to The Scout Association of Britain. He
wanted "to provide a training ground for the officers of the Scouting
movement." Consequently, Gilwell Park became the permanent home of Wood
Badge training in England and annually welcomes Scouters from around the world.
The ax and log symbol associated with Wood Badge is actually the totem of
Gilwell Park. Recently, The Scout Association has announced that it would
relocate its headquarters from London to Gilwell Park. In 1929, at the Third
World Jamboree at Birkenhead, England, Sir Baden-Powell was made a baron by his
king, and became Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell.

The Wood Badge may be worn only with an official field uniform of the BSA.
The Scouter to whom it has been awarded may also wear the tan neckerchief with
its patch of Maclaren tartan at the back. The Wood Badge neckerchief may only be
worn with the accompanying leather neckerchief slide or woggle.

A New Beginning

As the Boy Scout program matured
in the USA, it became apparent that Wood Badge could provide valuable
advanced training. To familiarize the United States with Wood Badge, John
Skinner Wilson, Gilwell Park Camp Chief, came from England to provide a
Rover Scout Wood Badge Course for BSA at New Jersey's Mortimer L. Schiff
Scout Reservation.

Bill Hillcourt was a member of the Burnham Patrol on that
WB Course, May 12-20, 1936. Four days later, May 24 to June 3, 1936, Bill
was the Staff Troop Leader and "Dog's Body" (Senior Patrol
Leader) for a second course. It qualified Bill to receive his WB Beads in
1939, and to become the national Deputy Camp Chief of the United States.

After World War II and a BSA training hiatus, Wood Badge
was re-awakened to become a permanent part of the American Scouting scene.

Early in 1948, the new Scout Executive who had replaced
Dr. James E. West, appointed four national Staffers to get Wood Badge
underway as a national training standard. Bill Hillcourt was one of the
four, BSA's first Deputy Camp Chief and by then, also the national
Director of Scoutcraft.

These four national Professional Staffers decided from the
start that two BSA Wood Badge courses would be run in 1948:

the first at NJ's Schiff Scout Reservation with
Scouters mostly from the Northeast, as a proving ground for this BSA
Wood Badge training (Course #1, July 21 - August 8, 1948)

the second at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico,
would be fine-tuned to become the standard of Wood Badge for the BSA
(Course #2, October 2- 10, 1948)

William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt was the
Scoutmaster for both.

The Philmont course was held Cimarroncito. Thirty-five
(35) men mostly from the Western parts of the U.S., assembled at
Philmont's "Big House" at noon on October 2, 1948, to launch
BSA's Wood Badge.

The course started tenuously with Professional Scouters
pitted against Volunteer Scouters. SM Bill Hillcourt regrouped his Staff
and broke an impasse. Patrol spirit soared and Participants overcame the
obstacles of high altitude, physical and mental fatigue, slow and
difficult supply deliveries, poor communications with the Philmont Ranch,
and bad weather with rain, sleet, snow, and cold!

Philmont's Wood Badge #2 Course followed that of WB #1:
It was unquestionably a mountain-top experience. Tired Scouters returned
home with strong, enthusiastic feelings; the future of Wood Badge in BSA
was assured.